Soli, A Gateway Community: Tracing Networks through Hellenistic and Roman Pottery from The Swedish Cyprus Expedition

PhD defence by Marie-Louise Jahn Hansen

Assessment Committee

Associate Professor Jane Fejfer, Saxo, University of Copenhagen (Chairperson)
Assistant Professor Giorgos Papantoniou, Trinity College Dublin
Special Scientist Anna Georgiadou, University of Cyprus

Supervisors

Associate Professor Kristina Winther-Jacobsen

Department

SAXO-Institute - Archaeology, Ethnology, Greek & Latin, History

Place

Building: 9A, Room: 9A.0.01, Karen Blixens Plads 16, 2300 Copenhagen S

Email address to gain access to the thesis: mjh@hum.ku.dk.
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Short description of the thesis

This dissertation is conducted within the Life at the Furnace project and examines pottery from Soli, a port town on Cyprus’s northern coast, to explore its role as a gateway community linking the copper-rich mountain hinterlands to the wider Mediterranean during the Hellenistic-Roman period.

Based on pottery excavated by the Swedish Cyprus Expedition, the study examines utility and cooking wares, transport amphorae and technology to trace the activities of potters, merchants and communities. Combining ceramic analysis, archaeometry and network-based approaches, it reconstructs patterns of production, exchange and interaction connecting Soli to regional and interregional networks. The pottery reveals how technology and craft traditions travelled alongside goods and people, demonstrating how everyday objects can describe movement, exchange and relationships in ancient Cyprus.